Industry veterans Ashton Waugh and Ben Lawler have teamed up again on another Cooks Hill pub, taking the keys to the Cricketers Arms Hotel.
Set on a 933sqm site, the pub incorporates public bar, bistro, gaming room with 11 machines (entitlements) and a beer garden.
John and Lynette Hayes had owned it since 2006.
The couple have previously operated several other venues, including the Bangalow Hotel, the Clarendon Hotel, the Maryville Tavern and Karuah Hotel. Culminating a career spanning 47 years, in recent times they handed day-to-day management of the Cricketers Arms to their daughter and son-in-law.
The hospitality syndicate of Waugh and Lawler, Watering Hole Hotels, bought the nearby Commonwealth Hotel of Cooks Hill in 2022, for circa $22 million.
Learning of rumours the Hayes family were considering selling, they arranged to approach the couple directly and are now believed to have paid around $12 million for the Cricketers, bringing synergies of local scale to the group.
This marks the second significant recent Newcastle pub sale, following Ben May paying over $25 million for the Merewether Surfhouse in July.
The off-market deal on the Cricketers was led by HTL Property’s Blake Edwards, who remains positive on prospects heading into Q4 of the calendar.
“We’re finding that venues in general are trading very well, with both valuations and confidence levels remaining buoyant, as we move into the final phase of the year,” he says.
“Newcastle is a particularly attractive destination for hotel investors due to the value arbitrage that exists relative to the Sydney market.”
